Speakers at an event on Thursday stressed the need for concerted and collective efforts to prevent and address issues of gender-based violence.
The event was organized by UNHCR in collaboration with UN Women and UN Population Fund (UNFPA) to mark international campaign ‘16 days of activism against gender-based violence’. The campaign would continue with a theme ‘Orange the World’. Every year individuals, institutions and organizations across the world plan activities to highlight that violence against women is a breach of human rights and the practice should be prevented and eliminated.
Speaking on the occasion, the provincial minister Shaukat Yousafzai said that Pakistan has taken measures to prevent gender-based violence and K-P is the only province that has made record legislation and introduced reforms to address this issue. Secretary Social Welfare, Zulfiqar Ali Shah said that social welfare is concerned with wellbeing and uplift of the community and vulnerable groups. Gayrat Ahmadshoev said that there is a dire need to mobilize communities around the world to end violence on the basis of gender.
He said UNHCR Pakistan is striving to support female Afghan refugees and make them self-reliant and added that ‘Self-reliance gives women opportunities to help families and confidence to tackle gender-based violence,” he said.
He said that UNHCR in collaboration with different partners and government institutions has enhanced skills of thousands of women and helped them to establish small businesses. UNFPA Representative Mahjabeen Qazi said that “We must unite to disrupt this devastating, destructive trend and ensure that everyone can exercise its right to feel safe and thrive without any compulsion”.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 10th, 2021.
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